10.6.18

Very early start as my body clock had me wide awake at 3am and ready to get moving! Considering the hour I decided the best way to fill in the time was to get ye ole blog going rather than putting on the joggers!

Call to prayer sounded out, sun rose and it was finally time for me to jump in the shower and get the day happening. Its Sunday here in Morocco (and Ramadan) so we decided to go for a walk and then return to the hotel for breakfast.

Our walk took us back down to the Old Medina. At 7am its very pleasantly cool and there are very few people out and about. Feels like the city is completely deserted. The ever present cats greeted us on all the street corners and a few hardy street sweepers were out cleaning the litter out of the gutters. We’re guessing that everyone gets up very early in the darkness to have brekky and then goes back to bed until its time to do something (whether that’s work or whatever). By the time we arrived back at the hotel (about 9am) the city was starting to get moving but still was pretty quiet.

Breakfast was definitely better than i expected. Love being in a ex-French colony because the pastries were second to none!! Plenty of croissants, danish and of course a yummy European cheese + meat spread. The coffee options were certainly unusual– a big dollop of chocolate in the cappuccino? Actually I was thinking of my last travel buddy K and thought to myself that she would be in big trouble here in Morocco as we hadn’t seen a Starbucks anywhere and coffee options seem to be a bit thin on the ground!!

Brekky done and dusted and it was time to pack up our gear and head to the airport to take ourselves out of Ramadan impacted Morocco and off to Spain to board our dirt cheap cruise from Barcelona. Flight and surrounds were far better than expected. Our 1hr 20min flight included a fully catered hot lunch– something you’d never get on either of the major AU carriers– and leg room is back to what economy used to be! Add in a spare seat next to me and we were pretty damn happy with Royal Marouc airways.

We arrived into Barcelona at about 7pm. We negotiated our way from the airport to downtown on the train and walked a couple of blocks to our digs for the night “Fabrizzio’s Petit”. Easily one of the best back packers I’ve ever stayed in… I’ve always said that Europe’s back packers are as good as hotels and this one is better than most hotels (far better than the one we stayed in, in Casablanca). This back packers is inside this old enormous terrace building– the front door is one of those carriage doorways that you have to open part of to get in!!! It consists of two floors- one that has the common areas and some bunk rooms and the other (our floor) which has privates and another bunk room. Our room consists of a king bed (oh so comfy!), our own bathroom (relatively spacious) + a wide balcony overlooking parkland. The common area is another big balcony with tables and chairs (overlooking same park), a fully stocked kitchen with free breakfast (help yourself anytime) & a fridge full of 1E beers, soft drinks and bottled water. Its a real shame we’re only here for one night as it is a rare find!

European summer meant that at 8pm the sun was still well and truly shining so we left our super awesome digs and headed down towards the old town to find something to have for dinner and to soak up the Barcelona atmosphere. It truly is a gorgeous city! Every building has a spectacular facadé, trees line the boulevards and the cobble stones never fail to delight. I know many of my usual readers have been to Spain before (and were always amazed that I hadn’t) and now I know why you’ve all been saying i needed to go to Spain… I’m going to get a small taster– will definitely have to come back at some stage for an extended stay to finally master Spanish + to live like a local.

Got some excitement in the Placa de Catalunya! We were walking along and had noticed a few darker gentlemen (from originally somewhere in Africa) selling black market handbags/ watches/ shoes etc selling their wares on the side of the road.. S had just explained to me why they were setup the way they were (so they could run away quickly if the authorities come around) when suddenly a full compliment of police (at least 6 on bikes, 2 vans + 5 or so squad cars) swooped into the Plaza to arrest them. Clearly the police had been tipped off and they very efficiently rounded up some of them and put them in the back of the cars.

Continuing down the La Rambla (one of the main boulevards in Barcelona) we were assailed by the crowds of tourists, quaint “turistic” shops + of course the food! When in Spain…. you must Tapas! We found ourselves a pretty nice tapas bar, sat ourselves up at the bar + began to gorge on yumminess. Sangriá was consumed (oh sooooo goooood), freshly smoked ham + meat balls savoured and all topped off with bread + seafood. Yum, yum, yum!

Our walk concluded with us getting off the main La Rambla and heading into the twisted streets of the gothic part of the city and back to our digs. Really beautiful night out in a super beautiful city. Barcelona, I’m in love!